American Man Charged After Allegedly Wiping Photos From His Phone During Airport Search

The U.S. government is prosecuting an American citizen for wiping the contents of his phone, including his photos in a first-of-its-kind case.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged American citizen Sam Tunick after he allegedly erased the contents of his phone while federal agents were attempting to seize it at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on January 24, 2025.

According to prosecutors, federal agents detained Tunick at the airport to question him about alleged child exploitation images. They claim he used a feature built into GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused Android operating system that can be installed on Google Pixel phones instead of Google’s standard software. GrapheneOS allows users to set a separate “duress password.” Unlike the phone’s normal passcode, entering the duress password automatically wipes the device’s contents.

Prosecutors allege that Tunick gave agents the duress password instead of the phone’s actual unlock code. Court filings state that after authorities entered the password, “the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart.” Agents seized the phone anyway before telling Tunick he was free to leave and could enter the United States.

The Justice Department later charged Tunick under a federal law that makes it illegal to knowingly destroy or damage property to prevent authorities from seizing it.

However, Tunick’s lawyers have filed a motion arguing that both his detention and the seizure of his phone were unlawful and that the evidence obtained in the case should therefore be excluded. They argue that the seizure of the device was “a pretext for a fishing expedition into Mr Tunick’s connections” to the Stop Cop City (SCC) movement, rather than an investigation into alleged child exploitation images. The Stop Cop City movement is a decentralized protest movement based in Atlanta that opposes the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, commonly known as “Cop City.”

Tunick has pleaded not guilty to all charges. A judge is not expected to rule on the motion before the end of October.

According to a report by The Guardian, the case, which had its first hearing on Monday, centers on a little-known federal law that makes it a crime to destroy or damage property to prevent it from being seized by authorities. Legal experts tell the publication that the case may be the first in which prosecutors have applied the law to a phone’s operating system. They also raised concerns that a privacy and security feature could be used to criminalize protesters.

The case comes as searches of electronic devices at U.S. borders have reached record levels. Last year, data showed that searches of phones and other electronic devices by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hit an all-time high. CBP officers have broad authority to search the phones and other electronic devices of anyone entering the United States, including U.S. citizens.

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